Toledo Blade: Tears flow as history falls to wrecking ball in Seneca--Supporters say watching is too painful
As this has been the lead, top of the page story on the local rag website for the past 36 hours (or longer), could someone explain to me what makes this so newsworthy? I'm a history buff. I love OK's photos of abandoned buildings. But what is the local rag fetish with this building...especially when we have so many in Toledo (Pythian Castle, anyone?) that could benefit?
The writing of the story today is just over-the-top mush garbage. Look at this:
**********
I do not want to watch the rape of the courthouse. … That's how I feel. It feels like a rape, " said Marietta Estep, as she packed up her things and left the scene. "I cannot stop it. I am not going to watch it."
Suzanne Smith said it was hard to watch, harder still to hear the thunking sound of the wrecking ball hitting the brick and sandstone building quickly followed by the crumble of debris, falling into a cloud of dust.
"Every time that thing swings, a part of me dies," Ms. Smith said, adding, "We have to heal. We have to go on, but this is extremely difficult."
**********
A rape? "Part of me dies"? My god, this is over a building. Cement, brick, steel. Holy shmoley...how many flesh 'n' blood people are hungry and cold right now in Seneca County that could be helped by these overwrought ninnys getting all worked up over this?
I'll repeat so nobody misunderstands: I LOVE old buildings and if they can be useful, great. I understand it was designed by some famous architect back in the day (but then again, most civic buildings were, so it's not that "special"). I just don't understand why this one is so newsworthy. Did JRB win his first lawsuit there or something?
I suspect it would be offensive to real rape victims to see the quote from that dumbass.
Yuck! One of the reasons I appreciate a good newspaper is that between the writers and the editors, they generally weed out the high emotionalism at a public event and try to report the facts.
But with the "dumbing down" of the news in general, and the success of reality shows on TV, it's hard to avoid this kind of reporting. :(
If anyone has ever traveled to the British Isles you will see buildings, in use today, that are centuries old. Why in America do we not take care of buildings so they do not have to be destroyed because they are old and have been neglected?
Golly gee, Start High School was opened after our home was built. Just some common sense maintenance and our home is as good or better than it was built.
I did take offense at the headlines today. Sensationalism is what sells these days not good old fashioned news.
Hey, guys, we forgot Second News in today's Blade: "Machine Claws Away at Libbey, grads' hearts." The article is about demolition at Libbey. Especially bizarre was the woman who claimed that the razing was breaking her mother's heart. Then she called her mom and held up a cell phone so her mother could hear the wrecking noise.
I sympathize with anyone who is in pain ... but here's a tip for greater peace of mind. DO NOT MAKE SURE OTHER PEOPLE HURT EVEN WORSE than you do, especially not an elder in your family. Please. Why would you do that to someone you love? /end rant
Who gains from tearing down these old well build structures? These building were built to last, and have until people in charge decided to demolish them. the would of still been standing when their replacements were no longer deemed safe. Neglect and abuse are what made them unseemly not natural aging. I may of heard wrong but didn't some of the "new" schools they just built in the last couple years already need new roofs?
There could be a disconnect within Block Communications.
The Toledo Blade newspaper likes to engage in activist journalism to save old buildings.
In this September 2007 Blade story, Allan Block, chairman of Block Communications Inc., parent company of The Blade was reported to say:
Toledo should model its economic rebound on former third-world countries that have pushed themselves into leadership status. He cited Singapore, the Arab emirate of Dubai, and the People s Republic of China as examples.
But I thought Singapore tore down their old buildings to make way for new ones.
People like to see it when the Blade loses, so all the haters are coming out of the woodwork on this courthouse issue.
Seneca County may be poor, but they are being penny wise and pound foolish in this instance. They will build a new courthouse on the site that will resemble a strip mall, and will then tear that one down in about 40 years, when renovating this one would last them 100 more years at least, and preserve the history and architecture. Its a shame.
What's a shame or silly is the Blade wasting five years and hundreds of stories on this building that's located two or three counties away when we have real problems in Toledo every week that need investigated like missing dogs and our favorite Mexican restaurant going down the tubes.
I'm still bawling about the little orange barrel that was "murdered" along the construction of the Douglas/475 on ramp. I went by and set up a little wooden cross in the grass there and have started a makeshift memorial.
For those interested, I'm planned a candlelight vigil soon. We'll get t-shirts made for that poor barrel and sing songs about the little fella.
I do hope the Blade does a story about this horrible loss and how emotional we are about it.
For all the talk of government spending on here, why should taxpayers pay to maintain some old building that's now undersized, fails ADA compliance, and probably has had all the electrical including telephone and data plus the plumbing and heating redone at least twice in its lifetime? And then have half the offices be elsewhere and pay for crap to be couriered between sites and so on? If it's anything like the various armories and other government buildings around, serious private businessmen don't want it, only rich dreamers and the architectural/history dorks buy the stuff up. Who the hell will touch something that's not ADA compliant and get sued over it, or immediately blow tens of thousands on compliance on top of the bill for buying the place? Port Clinton had the right idea, sadly: move out of City Hall and into the shopping plaza nobody wanted. Isn't there still a big old Wal-dropping sitting out there unoccupied? Sounds like a great place for Tiffin/Seneca County to buy cheap and move into.
Port Clinton is also home to the Ottawa County courthouse, completed in 1901, as gorgeous as it is functional today.
The building lost its historic value when the powers that were, revamped the original clock tower in the early forties.
And if anybody is injured during the razing of the courthouse, The Blade will definitely remind us that they were taken to the University of Toledo Medical Center, formerly the Medical College of Ohio.
hoops, this is off-topic but you reminded me that I recently saw a job ad in the Blade for academic positions at Tiffin University, Toledo campus, which they intend to call TU. So there will be a TU in Toledo again, but it's not the old TU, because the old TU is UT.
Good riddance to that decrepit eyesore. The Blade's sphere of influence barely extends past Summit Street.
Today's headline- Huge pillars felled at courthouse. Hilarious. I hope they continue the "brick by brick" description.
Somebody thinks this is Pulitzer or some-other-award material...you can tell by the "flowery", overwrought writing style.
Can be sure when it's down to level earth, there will be a wailing "it's gone" piece running in the Blade the following day, with more quotes comparing it to a nuclear war, a holocaust, etc.
Don't forget the opportunities to rehash the topic on every future anniversary.
Now that the "rape" is completed, the scavengers can pick at the bones...
Sigh. Another front page article. Glad there's nothing going on in Toledo that this warrants coverage:
People Snap Up Remembrances From Crumbling 1884 Courthouse